Death Walker - Third Season

NICK GROFF (VOICEOVER): In 1845, the infamous great hunger

occurred in Ireland and lasted for four years,

causing one million people to die

of starvation and other infectious diseases.

Two million people fled their homeland,

causing the population in Ireland to fall by nearly 25%.

A lot of Irish immigrants flocked to Buffalo, New York

and settled near the water, where

they worked as unskilled laborers

in Buffalo's early industries.

The area where the Irish settlers inhabited

is known today in Buffalo as the Old First Ward.

The Irish immigrants worked jobs on the docks, railroads, lumber

yards and grain elevators.

As backbreaking as these jobs were,

they were preferable instead of starving in ragged clothing

and to living in their derelict shacks.

They survived and thrived, though their numbers were

diminished by natural disasters and horrific workplace

accidents.

Just two months after Buffalo was incorporated as a city,

an epidemic broke out in June of 1832 that

devastated the Old First Ward.

Irish immigrants migrating from Quebec to Buffalo

brought the disease known as cholera, which

is an illness caused by a bacterial infection

in the intestines.

The epidemic caused the city to quarantine all traffic,

therefore lake boats, canal boats,

and stagecoaches were stopped.

The death carts patrolled the streets.

And when there was an indication of a death in a house,

the driver would shout, bring out your dead.

It only took a matter of weeks for cholera

to claim the lives of more than 3,500 people.

When cholera returned for a second round in 1849,

the death toll exceeded 5,000 in the city.

It was believed that God had brought the cholera epidemic

to New York in order to punish the poor immigrants

for their debauchery and their indulgence in sin.

This prompt the Irish men and women

to take over the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York

by 1880.

In 1888, many empty shacks and derelict homes were demolished

to clear the way for a gothic revival church called St.

Stephen's.

These derelict houses once represented local histories

and could have contained residual hauntings that

were imprinted in the building materials,

and even the land due to the amount of suffering and turmoil

they witnessed throughout the years of hardships

and cholera pandemics.

Tragedy occurred on December 27, 1948,

when a fire engulfed the rectory building, which claimed

the lives of two priests.

The pain that's felt before succumbing to fiery death

is said to be the greatest at the beginning

before the flame burns the nerves.

You can only imagine the impact this painful death had

on the environment by perhaps staining

the property in the energy of human suffering.

The church rectory and the damaged areas have all since

been rebuilt. The church changed its name frequently,

and eventually closed in 2016.

Within a year, a local sound engineer purchased the building

and planned to turn it into a recording

studio and apartments.

Immediately during renovations, workers and the owner

frequently heard phantom footsteps,

disembodied voices, and would feel

a strong spiritual presence watching

over them in various areas, including the basement.

Throughout my time as a paranormal investigator,

I've found that the unexplained phenomena are often

linked to traumatic events that a living person experienced

within the location, but also on the land

before the building was ever constructed.

The turmoil of grief can't linger

like a stain on a human person while the residual energy

from a tragic event can play like a broken record over

and over in this same location.

During my investigation, I want to find out

if this spiritual energy that seems to be lurking

around this church is positive or negative,

and try to determine if the priests that died 74 years ago

are choosing to remain and haunt the St. Stephen's church.

The building itself

was built by the neighborhood.

People would go down to the quarry to get the stones

and collect them during their lunch times and built this.

The other cool part about it when they built this is they

built... they kept the original church

and they kept services going.

The original church was built up front,

and they built this church over that church

while that church still existed.

And then when this church was done,

they carried that church out the front door.

The other part is that there were people

here who did devote themselves.

So the priests who fell and the priests

who devoted their time here and fell of natural causes,

definitely still have their spiritual emotion in the church

here, as well as the congregators

have their emotions into the church here.

So this room has an incredible amount of energy.

It had energy before it was built.

They probably chose this site because of the energy.

So you're standing in the middle of a cross with the nave

being there.

So that's actually the...

you know, it's the only Jesus left in the whole church.

But the whole church, if you look at it from above,

is a cross.

It's built together energy.

It's hard not to feel the energy while you're

here or standing in here.

We have the ability to harness that energy in this room

now and be creative and use this space for creativity.

1948, it seems like right around Christmas, probably the day

after, they had a fire.

But it is highly suspected... and I've

heard many stories pointing to it... that it was actually

caused from a cigarette.

Two priests were taken away from that fire from injuries,

and they went to the hospital.

And then they died of those injuries in the hospital.

So, you know, this church was built by a community

in the 1800s all together.

And like, you know, to me, it's like, I don't look

at it as a church as so much as a religion,

but it is a place for a community to, you know,

grow together and be together.

And you know, there's a lot of love

that went into this and labor.

And you know, that's how it is today.

Since we've moved here, Brian and I...

we moved in here like, you know, to work on it two years ago.

So since then, of course, a lot of things have happened.

A lot of things.

The organ itself, to me, has the most energy.

I studied that for a minute because I worked with one

of our local historians.

And it was actually from one of the original churches

of Buffalo that used to be in the heart of the Buffalo.

And then when that church had burned down,

they had moved it over here because this church had been

eradicated in 1888, I believe.

But that whole thing has a whole other energy.

I always felt like the organ was the heart of the building.

And, you know, since then, I've accepted that we're all of it.

So I'm not so worried.

You know, the organ definitely plays a part of it.

As many names as this church has changed and, you know,

congregations in and out, that organ

has been here since day one.

I like to think of the energy here as a magnet.

Things sometimes move by themselves, but I believe

it's more of like a...

like I can feel differently... you know,

energy, like waves or lines.

A lot of the times in the day, and especially in the 1800s,

they purposely would put, especially,

like churches and different historical buildings

of importance... significance, these ley lines, you know?

The Pan American Buffalo exhibit, you know,

people came here to see what they could build in America.

This is where investors came to see, oh, I could buy a state

and do this and do that.

And you know, Buffalo was the city of the Pan American.

And this building existed through it all.

We're basically in the First Ward,

the valley that's the first settled area of Buffalo.

Lot of workers down here that has to do with the canal,

the Buffalo river's right here.

Could have been a great amount of death in the local area.

Those people definitely had to pass through this.

They did a number of funerals in this location,

bringing in a number of people.

But the history here, there's been people in this area,

informed America...

obviously, this was a great place for Native Americans.

A good amount of war here against Canada

in the French-Indian wars.

A lot of battles here during the Revolutionary wars.

This area has been incredibly busy when it comes

down to that type of energy.

So just due to the history and the location,

there has been a lot of death in this area.

Is the priest still here that died in the fire?

Are you looking over this church?

The two men.

Or do you come from the land, all the wars that

were fought, all the death that occurred

around this whole entire area?

Is the priest that died in the fire is still here?

Right there.

Wow.

He goes, he was in the fire.

Am I communicating with the priest?